Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa tana dafa shinkafa da wake idan muna jin yunwa sosai. - Mother cooks rice and beans when we are very hungry.

Uwa tana dafa shinkafa da wake idan muna jin yunwa sosai.

Mother cooks rice and beans when we are very hungry.

Breakdown of Uwa tana dafa shinkafa da wake idan muna jin yunwa sosai.

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Questions & Answers about Uwa tana dafa shinkafa da wake idan muna jin yunwa sosai.

What does tana mean exactly, and how is it formed?

tana is a combination of:

ta = she / it (3rd person singular feminine or non‑human)
na = progressive/continuous marker (“be doing”)

So tana dafa literally means “she is cooking / she cooks (ongoing or usual action)”.

With other pronouns, it works the same way:

ina dafa – I am cooking
kana dafa – you (m.sg.) are cooking
yana dafa – he is cooking
muna dafa – we are cooking
suna dafa – they are cooking

Why do we have both Uwa and tana? Isn’t that repeating the subject?

In Hausa it’s very common (and natural) to have:

a full noun as the subject (Uwa = “Mother”)
followed immediately by a pronoun + tense/aspect marker (tana = “she is”)

So Uwa tana dafa… is basically “Mother, she is cooking …”.

You could also say:

Uwa na dafa shinkafa da wake… – using just na after the noun
Tana dafa shinkafa da wake… – starting with the pronoun only, “She is cooking…”

All three patterns are used; noun + pronoun is very common in everyday speech and helps keep the sentence clear and natural.

What tense or aspect is tana dafa? Is it “is cooking” or “cooks”?

tana dafa is in the progressive / continuous aspect, which Hausa also uses for:

Actions happening right now
- Uwa tana dafa shinkafa da wake.
  – “Mother is (right now) cooking rice and beans.”
Regular / habitual actions (especially when there’s a time/condition like idan)
- Uwa tana dafa shinkafa da wake idan muna jin yunwa sosai.
  – “Mother cooks rice and beans when we are very hungry.”

So in English you might translate it as “is cooking” or “cooks”, depending on context.

What exactly does dafa mean? Is it just “to cook”?

dafa means “to cook by boiling or simmering in water/liquid”. It’s especially used for things like rice, beans, soups, and stews.

Common cooking verbs:

dafa – cook/boil in water (e.g. rice, beans, soup)
soya – fry (in oil)
gasa – roast, grill, bake (dry heat)
girki – “cooking” in general (often as a noun):
- Ina yin girki. – I am doing the cooking / I’m cooking.

So dafa shinkafa da wake is very natural: rice and beans are typically boiled.

In shinkafa da wake, what does da mean? Is it “and” or “with”?

In this phrase, da means “and”:

shinkafa da wake – rice and beans

But da is a very flexible word in Hausa. It can mean:

“and” (joining nouns):
- Uwa da Baba – Mother and Father
“with” (instrument or companion):
- Ina cin shinkafa da cokali. – I eat rice with a spoon.
- Na je da abokina. – I went with my friend.
It also appears inside other structures, like da yake, etc.

Here, because it links two food items, you should understand it as “and”.

Why is it shinkafa da wake and not shinkafa wake without da?

Without da, the two words wouldn’t be clearly connected as “A and B”.

shinkafa da wake – rice and beans (a pair / combination)
shinkafa wake – sounds like one single compound word (and is not standard here)

So da is needed to show it’s a list of two separate things: rice and beans.

What does idan mean here? Is it “if” or “when”?

idan can mean “if” or “when”, depending on context.

In this sentence:

idan muna jin yunwa sosai – when we are very hungry (a situation that definitely happens repeatedly)

Because it describes a regular situation, English “when” fits best.

If you talk about something uncertain or hypothetical, idan would be “if”:

Idan ka zo gobe, zan baka abinci.
– If you come tomorrow, I’ll give you food.

How does muna jin yunwa sosai work literally?

Literally, it breaks down like this:

muna = we (are) + progressive marker (mu + na)
jin = the verbal noun of ji (“to feel, to sense, to hear, to taste”)
yunwa = hunger
sosai = very, a lot

So literally: “we are feeling hunger very (much)”, which is idiomatic Hausa for:

“we are very hungry”

In Hausa, many feelings/physical states use this “ji + noun” pattern:

jin yunwa – to feel hunger → to be hungry
jin kishi – to feel jealousy → to be jealous
jin zafi – to feel heat/pain → to feel hot / to feel pain
jin dadi – to feel pleasure → to enjoy / to feel good

Why can’t I just say muna yunwa sosai instead of muna jin yunwa sosai?

The natural, idiomatic expression in Hausa is jin yunwa (“to feel hunger”).
Saying muna yunwa sosai sounds unnatural or incomplete.

Standard patterns:

muna jin yunwa sosai – we are very hungry
ina jin yunwa – I am hungry
suna jin yunwa – they are hungry

So generally, keep the verb ji / jin when you talk about hunger.

What does sosai mean, and why is it at the end?

sosai means “very, a lot, really”. It is an intensifier.

Placement: it normally comes after the verb phrase or adjective it modifies:

muna jin yunwa sosai – we are very hungry
ya yi kyau sosai – it’s very beautiful
sun gaji sosai – they are very tired

You can think of it as “a lot / very much” tacked onto the end of the clause.

Could the sentence also be Uwa na dafa shinkafa da wake idan muna jin yunwa sosai? What’s the difference from tana dafa?

Yes, Uwa na dafa… is also correct.

Difference:

Uwa na dafa…
– Noun subject Uwa plus the bare progressive marker na
Uwa tana dafa…
– Noun subject Uwa, plus an explicit pronoun ta (“she”) and na: tana

Both are used. Many speakers like the doubled pattern (Uwa tana…) in everyday speech; it can sound a bit more emphatic or more clearly structured:

Uwa tana dafa… – “Mother, she is cooking…”
Ali yana tafiya. – Ali, he is going / walking.

So your original sentence is natural.

Why don’t we use ne/ce somewhere, like muna jin yunwa sosai ne?

ne/ce (and ne/ne for plurals) are copula particles used mainly:

to link nouns/adjectives in equational sentences,
or for focus (emphasizing part of the sentence).

Examples:

Shi ne likita. – He is the doctor.
Shinkafa ce. – It’s rice.
Uwa ce take dafa abinci. – It’s Mother (and not someone else) who cooks.

In muna jin yunwa sosai, the sentence already has a full verb phrase (muna jin), so it doesn’t need ne/ce. Adding it would change the structure and emphasis and is not needed here.

What is the basic word order of this whole sentence?

The main clause and the idan-clause both follow typical Hausa S–V–O word order:

Main clause:
- Uwa (Subject)
- tana dafa (Verb phrase)
- shinkafa da wake (Object)
Subordinate clause with idan:
- idan (subordinator “when/if”)
- muna jin (Verb phrase)
- yunwa sosai (Object + intensifier)

So the whole structure is:

[Subject] [Verb] [Object] [when-clause]
→ Uwa tana dafa shinkafa da wake idan muna jin yunwa sosai.